Off-Nominal

Jake and Anthony are joined by Brendan Byrne, News Director at Central Florida Public Media and host of Are We There Yet?, to present the 2025 Off-Nominees: the most bizarre space news stories of the year. Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 222 - Way to Gaureau (Presenting the 2025 Off-Nominees with Brendan Byrne) - YouTube The Off-Nominal Awards - Off-Nominal Eutelsat resolves OneWeb leap year...

Jake and Anthony are joined by Jeffrey Kluger to talk about his new book, Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon, the Untold Story . Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 221 - Ornithopter of Spacecraft (with Jeffrey Kluger) - YouTube Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon, the Untold Story: Kluger, Jeffrey: 9781250323002: Amazon.com: Books Gemini Follow Jeffrey Jeffrey Kluger (@jeffreykluger) / X Jeffrey...

Jake and Anthony are joined by Loren Grush of Bloomberg to talk about Jared Isaacman’s second nomination hearing and everything else going on around the industry, like maybe Sam Altman’s foray into rockets. Also, a little side quest into AI. Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 220 - I Will Always Follow the Law, Senator (with Loren Grush) - YouTube SpaceX Backer, Vying to Run NASA, Downplays Ties...

Jake and Anthony are joined by Ed Ge, CEO and co-founder of Aethero, a space computing startup focused on building the best integrated hardware and software in space. Also we randomly go eBay shopping for old Russian space hardware. Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 219 - ITAR-Certified Auction Houses (with Ed Ge) - YouTube Aethero - Space Data, Re-Imagined Cosmic Shielding works with Aethero t...

Jake and Anthony watch the ESCAPADE launch on New Glenn, and catch up on some other news. Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 218 - How Many Boeing 737s Tall - YouTube Replay: New Glenn Mission NG-2 Webcast - YouTube New Glenn launches NASA’s ESCAPADE Mars mission, lands booster - SpaceNews What would a “simplified” Starship plan for the Moon actually look like? - Ars Technica In a stunning comeb...

Jake and Anthony are joined by space artist and illustrator Paul Fjeld to review their rocket tier list, adjust some rankings, and add some new contenders to the mix. Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 217 - Buran DMCA Takedown (with Paul Fjeld) - YouTube Episode 217 Outtakes Rocket Tier List Rebuttal ※ veridical.net Off-Nominal Official Rocket - TierMaker (First Take) Off-Nominal Rocket Tiers M...

Jake and Anthony are joined by Eric Berger, Senior Space Editor at Ars Technica, to talk about the fight to be NASA Administrator, and to provide the lander for Artemis 3. Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 216 - Golden Llama (with Eric Berger) - YouTube Why did NASA’s chief just shake up the agency’s plans to land on the Moon? - Ars Technica Elon Musk just declared war on NASA’s acting administ...

Jake and Anthony are joined by Craig Baerwaldt and Sarah Freese to talk about Space Happy Hour and the upcoming Sally’s Night event, honoring Sally Ride and celebrating women in aerospace. Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 215 - Gainesville-on-Ocala (with Craig Baerwaldt and Sarah Freese) - YouTube Sally's Night | Space Happy Hour Global Women's Night November 13, 2025 Space Happy Hour | Space...

Jake and Anthony do a good ol’ news roundup—Jared Isaacman may be back as NASA Administrator, Stoke Space raises a ton of money, New Glenn gets ready for its next launch, and we have thoughts about the communication of phasing orbits. Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 214 - Blasting Through the Pork Chop - YouTube Trump, Billionaire Isaacman Said to Meet About Top NASA Job - Bloomberg Stoke Spa...

Jake and Anthony are joined by Adam Wuerl and Rob Davis, creators of Apogee Board Games (and longtime anomalies!), to talk about their new game, Scoundrels and Pirates Affiliated with Criminal Enterprises. Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 213 - This is Why We Playtest (with Adam Wuerl and Rob Davis) - YouTube S.P.A.C.E. - Scoundrels and Pirates Affiliated with Criminal Enterprises by Apogee Bo...

A guest scheduling snafu, a sickness at Anthony’s house, and a great idea from a future guest leads to an old school late night Off-Nominal where the boys have some fun making a tier list of rockets. Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 212 - Subcontractor Voltron - YouTube NASA Selects Blue Origin to Deliver VIPER Rover to Moon’s South Pole - NASA NASA, Sierra Space Modify Commercial Resupply Ser...

Jake and Anthony are joined by Christian Davenport of The Washington Post to talk about his new book, Rocket Dreams: Musk, Bezos, and the Inside Story of the New, Trillion-Dollar Space Race . Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 211 - The International Team (with Christian Davenport) - YouTube Rocket Dreams: Musk, Bezos, and the Inside Story of the New, Trillion-Dollar Space Race: Davenport, Chris...

Jake and Anthony are joined by Greg Gillinger of Integrity ISR to talk about what Russia and China are up to lately with their space assets. Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 210 - Hufflepuff Ships (with Greg Gillinger) - YouTube Integrity ISR: Forged by Service. Proven in Action. Integrity Flash Newsletter | ISR University Home - ISR University The Space Review: Developing and testing China’s...

Chris Temby and Jan Špaček join Jake and Anthony to talk about the Agnostic Life Finding Association and the search for life on Mars. Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 209 - Mars Life Pushers (with Chris Temby and Jan Špaček) - YouTube ALFA Mars Agnostic Life Finding Association, Inc. (@alfamarsinc) / X ALFA Mars - YouTube Follow Off-Nominal Subscribe to the show! - Off-Nominal Support the show...

Jake and Anthony talk about Starship Flight 10, what the future holds for the Starship program, and the Chinese lunar program. Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 208 - 1-0 Freedom - YouTube SpaceX - Starship's Tenth Flight Test After recent tests, China appears likely to beat the United States back to the Moon - Ars Technica Follow Off-Nominal Subscribe to the show! - Off-Nominal Support the sho...

Jake and Anthony are joined by Randy Riddle, retired small rocket chief engineer and long time anomaly (it’s LeonRunningMan, himself!), to talk about his career in the Air Force, how appropriated money actually works from the government side, and to tell a ton of stories. Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 207 - Replacement Money (with Randy Riddle, LeonRunningMan!) - YouTube National Air and Sp...

Jake and Anthony kick around the news, from Vulcan and Ariane 6 launches on the same day, Blue Origin’s MTO, and some licensing talk, because that’s super fun. Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 206 - Coalition for Deep State Exploration - YouTube After first operational launch, here’s the next big test for ULA’s Vulcan rocket - Ars Technica ESA - MetOp-SG-A1 and Sentinel-5 launch on Ariane 6 Op...

Jake and Anthony decide which spaceship(s) they would like to steal from a museum. Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 205 - Knives Out for Kansas - YouTube NASA’s new chief has radically rewritten the rules for private space stations - Ars Technica Lawmakers writing NASA’s budget want a cheaper upper stage for the SLS rocket - Ars Technica Is the Dream Chaser space plane ever going to launch int...

Jake and Anthony are joined by Joe Barnard to catch up and finally discuss High Steaks! Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 204 - It’s Not Delivery, It’s Deorbit (with Joe Barnard) - YouTube Can Supersonic Heating Cook Steak? - YouTube High Steaks Flight 1 - Onboard Footage 50% Speed with Data Overlay - YouTube Smallest 4K 120fps Camera Possible - YouTube Using Condoms to Make a Rocket Nosecone -...

Jake and Anthony return from their travels with stories, and a ton of news to catch each other up on. And we’ll find out if Jake was the person who bought NWA 16799. Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 203 - 20 Tree and Me - YouTube The largest Mars meteorite on Earth has sold for $4.3 million | Space Congress passes budget reconciliation bill with $10 billion for NASA - SpaceNews Senate Appropri...

Anthony is joined by Adrian Beil of NASASpaceflight to talk about the recent mayhem at Starbase, and to kick around European space policy topics in the run up to the ESA Ministerial later this year. Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 202 - Rapidly Adjusting (with Adrian Beil) - YouTube Following the Loss of Ship 36, SpaceX now Focuses on Rebuilding Masseys - NASASpaceFlight.com Jack Beyer on X :...

Anthony is joined by Casey Dreier, Chief of Space Policy at The Planetary Society, and Eric Berger, Senior Space Editor at Ars Technica, to talk about the NASA 2026 budget proposal, the Jared Isaacman saga, and all the space policy storylines you could imagine. Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 201 - Bad Ass, But Also Bad (with Casey Dreier and Eric Berger) (with Casey Dreier and Eric Berger) -...

Jake and Anthony are joined by Matt Gjertsen, founder of Better Every Day Studios, to talk about leadership and management development in the space industry (and elsewhere!). Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 200 - On the Interstages of Giants (with Matt Gjertsen) - YouTube Better Every Day Studios Follow Matt Easily listen to Leadership Launchpad – Team Development, & Performance Improvement f...

It returns. Hot drama. Also a moon lander is happening right now. Also Twitter fights break out. Also a moon lander doesn’t happen. Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 199 - The Thing That We Grow Plants - YouTube Isaacman: people with ‘axes to grind’ about Musk caused withdrawn NASA nomination - SpaceNews White House to withdraw Isaacman nomination to lead NASA - SpaceNews NASA Copes with Detail...

Jake and Anthony figure out if we should panic about Starship, or just Starship Block 2, or not. Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 198 - Gotahm - YouTube Starship’s Ninth Flight Test - SpaceX - Launches Northrop Grumman Invests $50 Million in Firefly Aerospace to Advance Medium Launch Vehicle Named Eclipse™ Introducing the new Northrop Grumman logo. | Northrop Grumman Rocket Lab's Neutron tappe...